The Maserati Alfieri Concept sounds raw at start-up

Sadly, the V8 won't make it into production.

At Villa d'Este, Maserati allowed onlookers to bathe their ears in the rich, bubbly noises emanating from its 4.7-liter V8 Alfieri Concept. After hearing it fire off, onlookers can't be blamed for being doubly excited about its production prospect—which is likely, if the plans presented by FCA the other week hold true.

However, they've been snookered. Underneath this Alfieri is really an MC Stradale chassis, cut down and wearing concept bodywork and sporting the same old V8. It sounds great, but it doesn't have much to do with the V6-only Alfieri dictated by FCA's plans for Maserati's volume expansion—the V6 that we found out can sound delicious with the right exhaust tweaks in the Ghibli.

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On some level, all that knowledge is irrelevant, because the thing to do here is simply enjoy the raw, throaty sounds the concept makes.